Triathlon caps transformation of 415-pound man into Ironman

After finishing the 2013 Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas outside the official time limits, Leo Bourgeois Jr. plans to return next year and finish in 16 hours.

After finishing the 2013 Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas outside the official time limits, Leo Bourgeois Jr. plans to return next year and finish in 16 hours.

Photo: J. Patric Schneider, Freelance

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Three years ago, Leo Bourgeois Jr. weighed 415 pounds.

Three years ago, Leo Bourgeois Jr. weighed 415 pounds.

Photo: Courtesy Leo Bourgeois Jr.

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Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43, weighed 415 pounds. He has since lost 200 pounds and says the most inspiring part of his story is the people who helped him achieve his goal.( J. Patric Schneider / For the Chronicle )

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43,

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43, weighed 415 pounds. He has since lost 200 pounds and says the most inspiring part of his story is the people who helped him achieve his goal.( J. Patric Schneider / For the Chronicle )

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43,

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43, weighed 415 pounds. He has since lost 200 pounds and says the most inspiring part of his story is the people who helped him achieve his goal.( J. Patric Schneider / For the Chronicle )

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43,

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43, weighed 415 pounds. He has since lost 200 pounds and says the most inspiring part of his story is the people who helped him achieve his goal.( J. Patric Schneider / For the Chronicle )

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43,

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43, weighed 415 pounds. He has since lost 200 pounds and says the most inspiring part of his story is the people who helped him achieve his goal.( J. Patric Schneider / For the Chronicle )

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43,

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43, weighed 415 pounds. He has since lost 200 pounds and says the most inspiring part of his story is the people who helped him achieve his goal.( J. Patric Schneider / For the Chronicle )

Leo Bourgeois Jr. poses for a portrait on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in Houston. He was one of the last people to finish Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas triathlon. Three years ago, Bourgeois, 43,

The course is dark, the race has ended. But the rowdy spectators in the short YouTube video of Leo Bourgeois Jr. finishing Saturday's Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas act like they're cheering for the event's winner.

Bourgeois turns the corner and breaks from a walk into a run. He doesn't look left or right but stares straight as he becomes the 2,122nd finisher - unofficially - of the iconic triathlon, with a gun time of 17:01:11.

"In all our hearts, he is an Ironman," said Trifit-XT coach Katie Proko, who, with her husband, Ben, helped prepare Bourgeois for the race. "He did the distance."

Not long ago, Bourgeois, 43, would have counted himself among the many people who would never dream of swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running a marathon in a single day. He weighed 415 pounds. His health problems - and he had many - included high blood pressure, sleep apnea, back and knee pain, and heart palpitations. He couldn't get on the floor to play with his two young children.

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Photo finish

1 End of the road: See Leo Bourgeois Jr. complete the Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty8XcTDij8U

"It's been a remarkable journey," said Bourgeois, who is deputy assistant in the city's Public Works and Engineering Department. "To be honest with you, three years ago, I never envisioned myself in the place I am now."

Two hundred pounds lighter, today he's roughly half the man he used to be.

Weight gain

Bourgeois, who is from Baldwin, La., played basketball and baseball in high school as well as trumpet in the band. But when his father died during Bourgeois' first semester at the University of Louisiana, he became depressed and gained 50 pounds.

"The weight came on, and once that happened, it exploded," Bourgeois said. When his beloved grandfather died in 1994, he was 300 pounds.

He yo-yo dieted. Every time he lost 100 pounds, he'd gain them - plus more - back. He took weight-loss drugs, which he said contributed to panic attacks each time he got thinner.

When his father-in-law died in 2008, Bourgeois gained again.

"There was a lot of depression I didn't know how to handle," he said. "Food and drinking was the only way."

The weight contributed to his emotional problems. He was ashamed to visit his hometown, and he worried about his children's friends teasing them about their father.

"I really didn't feel good about myself or being around anybody," he said.

Then, in 2010, Bourgeois' doctor told him he had diabetes.

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"I went home that night and told my wife, 'I can't take it anymore.' "

Bourgeois took a radical step, undergoing bariatric surgery on July 2, 2010. But he told himself the surgery was simply a tool. He had to make major lifestyle changes.

He decided to run a marathon.

First step

Sarah Balboa was on the job when Bourgeois walked into Luke's Locker in Katy six months later, looking for help.

"It takes a lot of courage for someone to come into the store, someone who may not fit the typical runner profile," she said.

Balboa suggested Katy Fit, a marathon training group. She answered his questions and encouraged his efforts. Bourgeois calls Balboa "my guardian angel," one of many who helped him progress from a half marathon to a marathon to a sprint triathlon to the Ironman.

"When I'm around extraordinary people, I can do extraordinary things I couldn't do by myself," he said.

Balboa and Proko think otherwise.

"He had the strength and the will and the spirit, and I was just blessed to be a witness to it," Balboa said.

"He's probably the most coachable client we've ever had. He just does what he's told, and he's so positive," Proko added.

Bourgeois said he's disappointed he didn't finish before the midnight cutoff. His studies for a master's degree in business administration kept him from training as much as he wanted, and he was slowed by blisters during the marathon. He plans to return for the 2014 race with the goal of getting it done in 16 hours.

Inspiring others

Now, Bourgeois says, the only pill he takes is an aspirin, and his children, 9 and 8, are happier because their daddy can run and play with them.

"I'm more in tune with myself. My training is an outlet for me because to go on a bike, swimming or running, it's relaxing. It's a release for me that I didn't have before."

Bourgeois said he hopes his story encourages others who have weight problems.